In fact, that's how the film starts, with Sam being blown up in his car and yet narrating from the perspective of the future. The story follows the real life exploits of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert De Niro) who ran a mob-owned casino in Las Vegas, doubling its profits before running afoul of the gambling commission that eventually saw him sitting in a car while a bomb blew it up. Still, the story is as engaging, perhaps more so than Goodfellas, and the acting is as good as anyone would expect from a Scorsese movie, which is to say, it is superb.

Casino ups the ante by having multiple narrators interspersed, a gamble that didn't quite pay off (apologies for the impossible to resist casino clichés). Both Casino and Goodfellas tell the story of an outsider brought into the mob, told in flashback, with the lead character narrating. But it was also a lazy critique of a complex film that has grown in stature since its release. The joke at the time of its release was, 'I liked Casino (1995) better under its original title, Goodfellas (1990).' The joke was an easy one, the two Martin Scorsese films being so thematically and structurally similar.

But as Nicky expands his interests and each man gains power, their lives become entangled in a story of hot tempers, obstinacy, money, love and deception. Together, they run the perfect operation, with Ace in charge and Nicky providing the muscle. The third member of this triangle of greed and obsession is Nicky Santoro, Ace's best friend and fellow graduate of the city streets. His infatuation with Ginger turns to obsession as she rises with him to the upper crust of society, then turns to the bottle and pills for consolation in her gilded cage. But he can't control the odds when it comes to Ginger McKenna, the chip-hustling vamp who charms Ace and becomes his wife. He eventually doubles the mob's take and changes the rules of how the casinos are run. Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, the consummate bookie who can change the odds merely by placing a bet, has risen through the ranks of the Midwestern mob to be picked by the bosses to front their entree into Vegas.

Casino movie photos